World Population Day: 10 truths behind India's population

India’s 1.25 billion-strong population is often hailed as the deciding factor in making the country the next superpower, especially when it is tipped to be the largest populace by 2030. the guide handpicks 10 interesting facts that represent the great Indian number crunching machine

1. India has the second (or third) highest population of Muslims in the world. Even though less than 15% of Indians are Muslim, the country’s enormous population means that by this measure it outranks all Muslim-majority countries, except Indonesia and possibly Pakistan. (There are almost exactly the same number of Muslims in Pakistan as in India).Information courtesy:BBC.com

Commuters and shoppers outside Dadar station. Pic/Sameer Markande

2. India has the world’s largest film industry.More than 1,100 movies are produced, on an average, each year — that’s slightly ahead of Nigeria, twice as many as the American film industry and 10 times as many as Britain produces. Most Indian films are not, as is often supposed, products of Bollywood, the nickname given to Mumbai’s Hindi movie industry which is responsible for roughly 200 films a year. Almost as many films are made each year in both Tamil and in Telugu, the two most widely spoken southern Indian languages — and Chennai and Hyderabad are major film production centres.Information courtesy: BBC.com

3. By 2030, around 12.9% of Indians are likely to be obese. Information courtesy:100 Things to Know and Debate Before You Vote by Hindol Sengupta

4. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, India ranks third behind the USA and the UK in the number of records claimed each year.Information courtesy:BBC.com

5. Median age of men in India: 26.4 yearsWomen: 27.7 yearsInformation courtesy:CIA report

6. Thane district of Maharashtra is the most populated district of India. In 2011, it is said to have 1,10,60,148 as its population. Information courtesy: Census 2011

7. There are six main ethnic groups that make up the majority of the population of the Republic of India: Negritos, Austrics, Mongoloids, Dravidians, Western Bracycephals, and the Nordics. The Negritos is the oldest ethnic group in India, coming over from Africa. The Austrics came to India next and ended up creating the foundation for the country and the culture. There are two major languages in the country of India: Indo-Aryan and Dravidian. The majority of the population speaks Indo-Aryan, while only 24% of the population speaks Dravidian. There are other indigenous languages spoken among the minorities.Information courtesy: www.worldpopulationstatistics.com/india-population-2013/

8. India’s population is not exploding in the way it used to. And many parts of the country actually have ageing populations that match Europe and Scandinavia. In 2001, about 54% of Indians were younger than 25 years; in 2011, this fell to 50%. Information courtesy:100 Things to Know and Debate Before You Vote by Hindol Sengupta

9. There are an estimated 11.4 million Indians living outside of India. The countries to which Indians have emigrated in largest numbers, as of 2010, are United Arab Emirates (2.2 million), the United States (1.7 million), Saudi Arabia (1.5 million), and Bangladesh (1.1 million). In 2000, 57,000 Indian physicians were living overseas. Information courtesy:Harvard report published by South Asian Institute

10. 197 languages are endangered in India. Five of those are already extinct while 42 are on the verge of extinction.Information courtesy: UNESCO report